Vol. CX
October 21, 2016
Hamlet Night
No. 3
Senior Class takes Shakespeare Classic to Stage By Maggie Zhu ’17
The Class of 2017 put on their own renditions of arguably Shakespeare’s most successful tragedy for Berkshire’s 25th Hamlet Night on October 10, 2016. Mr. Olson’s Advanced English VI took the title of “Best Scene/ Class” of the night with a “High School Musical” adaptation, the star from which, Jules Oberg, as Sharpay (Queen Gertrude), earned “Best performance of male playing female.” Dr. Kohlhepp’s Advanced English VI took the title of “Best Ensemble Cast” of the night with an “Anchor Man” adaptation, where Greer Gibney and Ione Bartlett took “Best females playing a male” as Brick. Mrs. Bogardus’s E period AP Literature class took “Best adaptation of a challenging scene,” adapting “Chopped” to the gravedigger scene, with Cat Quaintance playing chef, earning “Best Female Performance.” “Best Male Performance” went to Tyler Morse as Jay Z in Mrs. Bogargardus’s C period AP Literature’s pop culture adaptation. Each year, sixth form English classes read Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and reenact one or a few scenes from the play with a thematic twist. The night unfolded with the first scene where Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, which one of Dr. Rhie’s sections adapted to the story of Harambe the gorilla from Cincinnati zoo: Harambe being the ghost, and many protesting teenagers being Hamlet and company. Jules Oberg, as one of the Hamlets in their “High School Musical” adaptation, sang the famous “to be or not to be” solilloquy with unmatched enthusiasm in the skit, whereas Tyler Morse’s impersonation of Jay-Z fully represented the character and mindset of King Claudius with an entertaining twist. Other adaptations include “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “Star Wars,” “Chopped,” and “Anchor Man,” etc. Some sections also adapted to the original Shakespeare play thematically, like the presidential debate, social media, pop culture, etc. “Hamlet Night” was created to help students better understand the Shakespeare play, and is also an opportunity for students who have never been on stage before to have a chance to show themselves. There are many students one thought would never be on stage who shone on “Hamlet Night.”
See Inside for Parents’ Weekend Schedule and Good Restaurants Around Town! It was Mountain Day, What were We up to? page 5
page 2
Clinton and Trump, Berkshire Bears Have Their Own Takes page 3, 7
Photos taken by Ms. Bush
Friday Night Lights
The Berkshire School Football team has made a solid start to the season. On October 7th, the Bears had a game against Capital Prep. Coming into the game, the teams were evenly matched. Through the first half the game was close, but as the game went on the Bears proved to be too much for the visiting Capital Prep Sharks. During the second half of the game, Capital Prep didn’t record a single point. Continued on page 4.